A collective ban in the crypto circle that hasn't been seen in years has occurred again, not on Weibo, but on Musk's free speech X platform.

Currently banned crypto accounts include the official gmgn account and its founder, the official eliza account and its founder, as well as many well-known crypto KOLs.

Possible reasons for the ban

First, learn from history. Historically, many individual accounts on X have been banned, such as Trump or CSW (Craig Wright) familiar to the crypto circle, but mass bans are very rare.

In 2021, during the Capitol Hill incident, tens of thousands of accounts supporting Trump were banned. After Musk took over X at the end of 2022, he cleared a large number of fake or impersonating accounts, as well as many bot accounts, primarily around benefiting himself and his political direction.

So there is a viewpoint suggesting that this batch of bans is due to a political meme, as shown in the picture below, which clearly plays on the potential reconciliation between Trump and Musk, as both have made friendly gestures verbally. Some believe that Musk dislikes this meme and banned the relevant accounts.

However, this reasoning is clearly untenable, as it is not just these few accounts that posted this meme; some banned accounts didn't even post the related meme, and many other accounts that posted images on X have not been banned.

There is also a viewpoint suggesting that this ban is mainly related to GMGN because GMGN has been using crawlers to heavily scrape a large number of tweets on X. But this reasoning also has some issues, as many InfoFi projects are not just using X's API honestly, they are mostly crawling too, yet these projects' accounts have not been banned.

Rhythm BlockBeats also asked the banned Haze, who said he still doesn't know the specific reason and is waiting for X's reply.

Coincidentally, Musk tweeted on June 10th that X's algorithm has been adjusted again, with extensive use of Grok, so we inquired about Grok regarding this banning incident.

Grok listed some possible reasons:

1. User reports: Some posts claim that a user utilized quantitative bots to report Chinese cryptocurrency accounts in bulk, accusing them of 'buying low and dumping high' or ambushing with small wallets while cutting leeks with large wallets. This may lead the algorithm to mistakenly judge it as 'platform manipulation' or 'spam.'

2. Content model: Banned accounts frequently mention specific crypto projects (like ai16z, ElizaOS) or interact with GMGN, which may be identified by the algorithm as 'inducement promotion' or 'potential scams.' X is sensitive to cryptocurrency content as it often involves high-risk investments or scams.

3. Algorithmic misjudgment: Grok's enhanced automated detection may be overly sensitive to accounts with high-frequency posting or similar patterns (such as meme coin promotion), leading to mistaken bans. Historical cases show that cryptocurrency accounts have been temporarily banned for being misclassified as spam.

Will it follow the footsteps of Weibo?

This recent Twitter ban targeting crypto users' accounts easily evokes memories of the large-scale bans on crypto KOL users by Weibo in 2018 and 2021, such as accounts from Golden Finance, Huobi News, Coin World, and individuals like @SuperBitcoin, @TraderXiaoxia, @LanshaoCX, @MasterLiTony, @BitcoinCaesar, @FatZhaiBitcoin, etc. The relevant pages show that the above accounts have been banned due to complaints of violating laws and regulations and related provisions of the (Weibo Community Convention) and are no longer viewable.

After the banning incident, crypto KOLs on Weibo could only shift their battlefield to Twitter. Under an extremely opaque review system, a large number of content creators were 'uprooted,' and Weibo has gradually withdrawn from the center of public opinion in the crypto industry.

It is against this backdrop that Twitter has become an important stronghold for the Chinese crypto community. Compared to Weibo's closed review system, Twitter, with its openness and brand narrative of free expression, has provided a refuge for many crypto KOLs and project parties. However, this refuge seems to be losing its protective power, and with the in-depth deployment of AI-driven content governance systems (like Grok), X's banning actions are becoming more systematic, automated, and harder to hold accountable.

The difference is that the X platform is not a government-led content review but is gradually sliding towards a new centralized information control model under the logic of dehumanization and algorithm governance. Under this mechanism, the platform may not directly intervene in content judgments but can aggravate misjudgments, amplify public opinion attacks, and abandon manual review through technical means, thus creating a more opaque expression environment.

Related Reading: (The world hates current social media)

In the face of this increasingly reinforced logic of technological blockade, the value of decentralized social networks is being reassessed. On-chain social protocols like Farcaster and Lens Protocol are frequently mentioned again. However, these protocols are still in the early stages, and their user experience and mainstream influence are far from X, making it difficult to form a replacement in a short time.

However, facing an unending cycle of content platforms and a severe regulatory environment, it seems that content creators stepping onto decentralized social platforms and having more freedom of account ownership is a foreseeable trend.

Finally, for X account protection for cryptocurrency content creators, the following measures can be taken to reduce risks:

1. Avoid high-frequency promotion: Reduce frequent mentions of specific projects or contract addresses (CA) to avoid being misjudged as inducement content.

2. Compliance posting: Ensure that content does not involve exaggerated returns or misleading statements, and comply with X's advertising and financial product policies.

3. Security measures: Enable two-factor authentication (2FA), regularly check account permissions to prevent being exploited by hackers leading to bans.

4. Appeals and communication: If banned, promptly submit an appeal through X's appeal channels and publicly seek community support.

BlockBeats will continue to pay attention to this matter and bring reliable news to readers in a timely manner.